Barn Swallows in flight at Mount Moreland

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Barn Swallows incubating

By Risto Jäntti

The weather changed yesterday quickly: still the day before yesterday we had 28 deg which is considered hot and so it felt. That hot weather lasted almost a week and at times it felt so unbearable that I just couldn't stay in the sunshine, because I wasn't´t feeling well in the heat (of course all Finns aren't that heat-sensitive). But yesterday cold air from Northern Finland reached us and now the temperature is just 10 deg + rain and thunderstorm.

Contrary to my expectations it seems this Barn Swallow season will be at least as good as the previous one, if not even better, on the condition that everything goes well of course. So far I have been able to confirm 13 active first-brood nests and there are still a few nests I´m not sure about. The atmosphere in the barn has cooled down considerably, but there are still occasional chases when a swallow from another nest comes too near. The Barn Swallows do not necessarily need a lot of space for the nesting, the shortest distance between two active nests in our barn has been one meter. This year there are several nests with the distance of a couple of meters between them. The Barn Swallows are now incubating.

A Common Gull pair are nesting again this year in the very same tree in the same nest as last summer near our house. They must be the same birds. Because I don´t want to disturb the birds I haven´t been able to do all the work I should have done, but the birds´ wellbeing is more important. The chicks have already hatched and will sooner or later jump down onto the grounds and will then go to the lake shore and I will be able to start working.

Regards

Risto

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24-06-2011

Disaster with the Barn Swallow Eggs

This Barn Swallow season started so promising: at least 16 active first-brood nests, more than for years. When Janne came to us to ring Wagtail chicks (the nest was on the tin roof of the cow house, under eaves) we noticed strange-looking eggshell's on the barn floor under one Barn Swallow nest. They were not normal neat eggshell halves but many kinds of small and large pieces. First we thought that the first swallow chicks had hatched, but then I started suspecting everything was not right. And indeed, the following days the nest seemed abandoned. Some days later I was shocked to see a squirrel robbing swallow nests! I tried to chase the beast away but it came back at least once again. Now I have not seen it for a week and I hope it will never come back. At this stage it is difficult to say, how much damage the squirrel did, but my rough estimation is that at least half of the nests were emptied. There have been squirrels during the swallow season a couple of times earlier in the barn during all the decades that swallows have been nesting in the barn, but in all those cases I was lucky enough to notice it immediately and was able to chase them away before they could eat up swallow eggs or chicks. This time was different, first I did not even know a squirrel was emptying the nests.

I think some swallow pairs have left to renest elsewhere, but the good news is that there are still lots of Barn Swallows left and they are starting to renest.

Now I have taken preventive measures for the squirrel (for instance a plastic Great Horned Owl to keep the squirrel away) and so far it seems those measures are working. Time will tell if it will be permanent. I do understand that what happened is only natural but I cannot help feeling very bad. Unfortunately, no matter how well you try to protect your Barn Swallow friends, you just cannot always succeed.

Regards

Risto